Chapter 10: To Welker’s Landing

Written by Skarth Diem to Dronaet Klingstone

It was a relief to return home after more than a week away from my new family. It was a relief to sleep in a bed that did not sway and roll around after more than a week of sleeping on the ship.

I tried to settle back into my routine as quickly as I could. I went swimming after dawn with Wrack and then reported to the mine. There I apologised to Manistrad Copperlocks for my extended absence. She was very gracious and said that she accepted that I would be absent from time to time as she understood I had other obligations. She pointed out that the mine had managed quite well without me before I had arrived and that she considered my services as something of a bonus.

Our conversation was then interrupted by a dwarf who had fallen and gashed his shoulder open quite badly. I got out my wooden bowl and sang the song of healing as I poured a potion into the bowl for him to drink. He was quickly restored to good health, then he nodded to myself and Mrs Copperlocks before returning to work. She turned back to me with a smile and said, “As I was saying, something of a bonus.” She then set me to work updating the allocation of shifts and writing out a neat copy to be posted on the board for the workers.

Later in the morning, Wrack came to the mine and asked to speak to me. He told me that he had been asked by Eliander Fireborn to recruit us to do escort duty starting the following day. It seems that due to the work preparing defences against the Sauhagin, the Town Guard was stretched thin. The task they needed us for would be to escort a caravan of two wagons to the small outpost of Burle, two days’ travel to the north of Saltmarsh. Burle is a fortified camp established by Korvosa as a part of the line of defence for the coastal towns against the creatures from the Dreadwood. As such, Burle houses a troop of warriors and rangers commanded by Kiara Shadowbreaker. In addition, the outpost serves as a point of communication with the wood elves and fey that live further inland. It seems that an ancient Treant has taken up residence in the keep to act as an ambassador to Korvosa.

As soon as Wrack mentioned the Treant, I told him he could stop talking as I was in. There was no way I would miss the opportunity to meet one of the Treants. Wrack seemed pleased and told me that we would assemble soon after dawn and the caravan would leave as soon as possible after that.

Wrack left to make his own preparations. I knocked on the door of Manistrad Copperlocks so that I could inform her about yet another absence, though this one would hopefully be shorter than the last. Once I had finished at the mine for the day, I spent a short time working in the garden of our large house which we rarely seem to use as a group, though Kelshann has started living there so the house is not abandoned. After that, I walked back into town and visited a few shops to finish replacing the equipment I had either lost or used in our encounter with the sea monster.

I then joined you and your family and very much enjoyed our meal together. The two of us went for a short walk down to the riverfront and practised skipping stones across the water. I am getting better at that skill so you must be a good teacher.

The following morning, I breakfasted before dawn and then completed my morning ritual, singing the song of dawn and the song of growth and wellbeing for the plants in my little garden nook. Then I gathered all my equipment and said my farewells to you, your mother and your grandfather. With a cheerful wave, I set off for the barracks where we were all to assemble.

The two wagons were all loaded and they were in the process of tying the load down when I arrived. We were introduced to the wagoneers: Eska and Lyra on the first wagon, and Oskur and Prinn on the second. They explained that the road we would take followed the Kingfisher River inland all the way to Burle and that it would take us most of two days to get there. At about the halfway point there was a settlement of Halflings at Welker’s Landing. This was our target for the day’s travel. It was impossible to miss as it was at the junction of the Kingfisher and a large tributary that flowed out of The Dreadwood, and was simply called Dreadwood River.

It was a little over an hour after dawn before we set out. The five of us took turns to either walk beside the wagons, or ride on the back of the wagons. Somehow I ended up on the second wagon which seemed to smell very strongly of fish. I found out later that a good number of the barrels contained salted fish and were a consignment from Jenny Fisher’s company to the garrison at Burle.

It did not take long for us to leave the farmlands surrounding Saltmarsh behind and roll out into the wilderness. This area is mostly open woodland, to the left we could see the Kingfisher between the trees. In this section, the road maintains a fairly straight line to the north while the river curves back and forth to the left of the road. Beyond the river, to the west, there were more woodlands. In the distance, we could occasionally see the beginnings of the marshes.

During the morning, we passed a single wagon escorted by some Korvosan cavalry and headed south to Saltmarsh. We hailed each other and they asked if were carrying mail to Burle. Oskur informed them that we had a big basket of such and the captain asked if there were any for him and his men. Riellian asked for their names and their identity papers which seemed to greatly offend the captain. I’m not sure why Riellian felt the need to ask for their papers as it was obvious that they were Korvosan military simply from their uniforms and equipment. Oskur addressed the Captain by name and asked for the names of the other soldiers, then he went fossicking through the basket and found a few items for various members of the troop.

The captain then warned us that there were some reports of raiders along the road up ahead though they hadn’t seen any personally.

A short time later, we passed another wagon coming the other way, this time with an escort from the Saltmarsh town guard. They gave us a similar warning, and also let us know that the halflings at Welker’s Landing tended to follow the old ways and had no time for the new gods such as Procan. I wasn’t sure how they would consider my little rituals so I resolved to quietly do my morning and evening rituals outside of their immediate township to avoid offending them.

We had a short break a little after noon at a place where a stream splashed noisily across the road. We watered the horses and then ate some bread and cheese for lunch. We kept an eye out for trouble but our lunch was undisturbed. After lunch, the road swung around to the northeast due to a large bend in the river. The land was still lightly wooded but we had now moved off the coastal plain and into some low hills. From time to time, as we topped a hill slightly higher than the rest, we would catch glimpses of a dark line on the eastern horizon which was the edge of The Dreadwood. Each time we saw it, that dark line seemed to be gradually creeping closer and closer, though it was still perhaps 10 miles from us at that point.

Around mid-afternoon, we trundled over a rise and suddenly saw some tree trunks that had been dragged across the road to form a barrier. Eskar, in the front wagon, held up his arm and called “Ho” and the two wagons trundled to a stop.

The rest of us immediately went even more alert than we had been, frantically scanning the surrounding trees and undergrowth for any sign of an ambush. I had been sitting on the back of the second wagon at the time so I stood on the wagon, hoping to gain an advantage from the extra height. Assuming we were about to get into a fight, I also sang the song of bark which hardened my skin and turned it brown and tough like the bark of a tree.

Then we heard a whistle from somewhere ahead of us and immediately several cross-bow bolts came shooting out from the undergrowth. One bolt went whistling past me but it missed by more than a foot and disappeared into the trees behind me.

From my vantage point, standing on the second wagon, I had a clear view to the front of us where I saw a rough-looking fellow with one eye step out from cover and stand behind the tree trunk blocking the road. He flung a dagger that struck Eskur (in the first wagon) in his upper chest. Eskur cried out and fell back into the wagon to the alarm of Lyra, his companion on the first wagon.

Then the leader, who I later found out was called Plesko One-eye, called on us to put our weapons down and let them take the goods from the wagons. I thought it was unlikely we would do that so I kept scanning around near me, looking for any of the bandits. Finally, I located a woman holding a crossbow, trying to hide behind some rocks. I sent my thorn-whip lashing out. It wrapped around her shoulders and I used it to drag her out into the open. At about the same time, Wrack saw a second bandit up in a tree to the right of the one I had seen. He flung his trident at her, though unfortunately its prongs got caught up in the tree and it did not reach its target.

Jenny Fisher went storming up to the front where Plesko One-eye stood and yelled at him that he couldn’t have her fish, then she slammed her fist on the ground and a section of the tree trunk in front of him shattered into fragments. Plesko One-eye reeled back in shock and wiped some blood from his face. I heard a twang as Riellian fired her bow at Plesko but the arrow went wide. Then Kelshann arrived with her eyes gleaming red with rage. She extended her hands, which suddenly ended with long, sharp claws and slashed down and across Plesko’s front, leaving several lines across his chest that immediately started seeping blood.